


Don’t worry (Because they care)

by lronFrost456



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Happy Ending, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Hurt Tony Stark, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Secret Relationship, The team messes up, Trans Male Character, Trans Tony Stark, Transphobia, but then they make it right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 17:06:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18673879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lronFrost456/pseuds/lronFrost456
Summary: Tony had managed to keep the fact that he was transgender a secret from pretty much everybody, but what happens when his father, who never accepted him, time-travels and meets the the Avenger team? What happens when they learn Tony’s secret?





	Don’t worry (Because they care)

**Author's Note:**

> I didn’t put Tony’s boyfriend in the tag because I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it’s in the end notes if you really want to know.
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments, and enjoy:)

Tony was tinkering in the lab when the call came through. It was around lunch time, way to early to be disturbed by SHIELD. But, his presence was requested on the helicarrier, with the shortest delay possible. He knew that with his status as a consultant, he didn’t have a way to get out of this. 

Tony took all his time showering and getting ready to leave, not at all eager to be in the same room as Fury. He didn’t mind being in company of the other Avengers anymore, as they were used to working together, but that didn’t mean he liked SHIELD anymore than before. 

The fact that Fury hadn’t told him why his presence was requested was probably just the director of SHIELD trying to look more important than he really was. If it had been a real emergency or a threat the Avenger alert would have warned him.

Tony made sure to avoid the mirrors in his room while getting out of the shower, as usual, still disgusted by the scar tissue covering his chest. At least now his top surgery scars didn’t stand out as much as before. The same couldn’t be said about the scars from his bottom surgery, but that was a small price to pay to be able to have a body he hated less than the one he was born with.

He chose an Armani suit in his dresser, and made sure that the cut of the suit was as masculine as possible, a habit that hadn’t died no matter how many time he wore the same suit. He also made sure that the bulge in his pants was just right, and that his hair were placed in a way that hid his more feminine hairline. 

It’s not like anybody even had suspicion about him not being a cisgender male, but he was always paranoid about someone finding out the secret he had managed to hide from everybody for more than twenty five years. The only person who had known beside his parents, Jarvis and his lover, Obadhia, had died without ever having the chance to make his secret public like he had planned to.

He left a message for his boyfriend to find when he was going to get back, and left the penthouse.

When he stepped out of his penthouse and on the roof of the newly renamed Avenger tower, mark IX, his latest suit, was already waiting to take him to the helicarrier. On a normal trip, he would have enjoyed flying around and twirling in the sky till he couldn’t tell which way the ground was, but he had the decency of not making the team wait for him too much.

A small delegation composed of Maria Hill, Fury, Coulson and Romanoff was waiting for him in the landing bay, and he bantered and talked to Natasha as they made their ways towards one of the many conference room of the helicarrier. He had become surprisingly close to the assassin in the last few month, both of them getting over the initial circumstances of their first meeting and really getting to know and appreciate each other.

Thor, Banner and Clint were already in the room when he got there, reassuring him a little bit. The only one missing was the Captain, which was weird as he had never missed a team meeting or any Avenger gathering before.

“Man of Iron! Have you been made aware of the joyous news?” Exclaimed Thor, upon seeing Tony taking a seat around the table where the rest of them was.

“I’m gonna be honest with you Point Break, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Answered Tony, definitely reassured after seeing his teammate in such a good mood.

“We haven’t filled Stark in yet.” Fury added, before nodding to Maria to start a display on the screen that was on the middle of the table.

On the screen, Captain Rogers could be seen engaged in an animated conversation with a man who bore a striking resemblance to Tony, except for the white and grey hair. All colour was immediately drained from Tony’s face, like if he had seen a ghost.

“We know it’s a lot to take in Tony, but we identified this man as Howard Stark, your father. I ran all the test I could this morning, and he got every question that Steve asked him about their time in the war together right. Our best hypothesis at the moment is time travel. ” Explained Bruce, a worried look on his face.

“Look, Stark, we know you and your father never got along, but this is a second chance that some people would kill to have. Howard would probably like to know what kind of man his son became.” Said Clint, with a sad look on his face.

Tony was still frozen on the spot, a horrified expression on his face. On the display, they could see Steve getting out of the room where Howard was, but it was impossible to hear what was being said between the two of them. 

Seconds later, the Captain was entering the meeting room, smiling at everybody in there before facing Tony.

“Tony? I told Howard I would be back in a second with a surprise. He’s gonna be thrilled to see you!” Exclaimed Steve, apparently blind to how distraught Tony seemed or the tense ambiance of the room.

“No. I-I’m not stepping foot in the same room as him.” 

“What are you talking about? Hurry up, he’s waiting for you! We don’t know for how much time he’s gonna be here!” 

“I’m sorry, but no can do, Captain.”

“What!? Tony, you’re his son! You have to see him. I can’t believe you would chose a time like this to throw a tantrum.” A disappointed scowl now was on Steve’s face. 

“That man called me a lot of things. His son is not one of them.”

“I’m not going to let you fuck this up. You may not understand, but it’s you’re only chance at making things better between the two of you, Tony. You’ll thank me later.” After saying that, Steve grabbed Tony’s arm and pulled him up to his feet. Tony, who was still quite stunned about the fact that his father was in the room next to him, didn’t resist. Nobody else in the room said or did something as Steve dragged Tony with him toward the exit of the room, obviously leading him to where Howard was.

Next thing he knew, Tony was standing in the same room as the man who had haunted his nightmares for too long, beside Captain America, who was smiling with all his perfect white teeth as he waited for either of them to say something.

“Who is this, Steve?” Asked Howard, breaking the silence, with a suspicious look on his face.

“Hey dad.” Tony had never called him ‘dad’ before, not even father, but now that he was facing him, there was no way he would act as a scared child anymore.

Seeing the recognition in his father’s feature, Tony knew that there was no way he was going to be able to keep his secret anymore. Knowing this, he decided that he would not let the man before him talk him down either. All his childhood, he had been afraid, scared of Howard. With reason, seeing the scars his back was still marred with, but he was now a man. He wouldn’t let his father tell him the contrary, his father couldn’t touch him anymore, and he wouldn’t let his words get to him either.

“Natasha?” Howard’s tone of voice was menacing and cold, exactly the same as Tony remembered from his childhood.

“It’s Tony. Or Mister Stark” Tony told his father, for what felt like the millionth time, even though it had been decades since the last time.

“Wait, who is Natasha? What’s happening? Aren’t you glad to see your son?” Steve confused voice didn’t interrupt the staring contest that had began between the two man.

“You must be what, forty years old? And you still believe that you’re a boy? A man? I should have disowned you and given you up for adoption.” Angrily hissed Howard, backhanding Tony who was too slow to stop it. He should have known, he thought. His father had hit him each time he had talked back when he had been a child.

“How dare you? How dare you shame the Stark name like that?” Continued Howard, as agents began pouting in the room, because even thought they had identified the man as Howard, they kept him under close surveillance. The fact that he had became violent seemed out of character for the Howard that most of the world had known, and that meant that the agents had been waiting behind a hidden door had to intervene.

“Stark man are made of iron.” Said Tony, as he spitted the blood from his mouth. He remembered the last time he had told Howard those exacts word, the last time he had seen him before the car crash. How angry his father had been that he called himself not only a man, but a Stark man.

“You’re delusional. You’ve never been a man, Natasha. You’re my daughter, no matter what you say. Do you really think that Captain America would have even looked at you if he knew what a failure you really were? Did he know that you were a girl pretending to a boy all this time?” it was all that Howard had the time to say before the SHIELD agents dragged him out of the room.

Tony stayed were he stood, massaging his throbbing cheek with his hand. He didn’t look where Steve was standing, just a few feet away from him. He was grateful that Steve didn’t try to engage in a conversation right now, needing a little bit to gather his thoughts on how to explain what had happened to the rest of the team.

Soon after, he heard the rest of them coming in the room. A few awkward minutes went by without nobody talking.

“Antoshka.” Natasha broke the silence, trying to catch Tony’s gaze, but he was purposely avoiding to look at any of them.

Tony had been able to keep his secret all his life, he had been able to keep it hidden from Pepper, from Rodhey. And all that had been ruined in less than five minutes. Even worst, Howard was back, and nobody knew for how long.

“Tony, are you alright? Let me take a look at your cheek-” 

“Just stop, Bruce. You don’t have too.” Interrupted Tony. He didn’t want his teammates pity. He didn’t need it. 

“Stop what, Tony? I just want to help you.”

“You don’t need to act like you care, it’s alright. You can leave, I won’t take it personally. Sorry for ruining you time with Howard, Captain.” He liked to think that the Avengers had cared about him for a while, had even maybe liked him, but as soon has Howard had outed him to all of SHIELD’s, he knew that he would be back on his own.

Minutes later, everybody was still in the room in the same awkward silence. Tony had hoped that someone would correct what he had just said, but he had been right. They didn’t really care. So he made his way to the exit of the room, and still nobody stopped him. He looked one last time at everybody in the room, and left, closing the door behind him.

The Iron Man suit was waiting for him in the landing bay, and even if he waited a few minutes before getting in it, nobody came. Why did he get his hopes up every time? When would he learn that it would only end up in him getting hurt once more?

When he got to the tower, he stood in the penthouse, his cheek still hurting before he made his way toward the kitchen to get some ice. But on his way to the kitchen, he got distracted by the uneven wall of his corridor. He very well remembered the day he had drilled a hole in it, and stashed some of his best alcohol bottle before Pepper had thrown the rest down the drain with Rodhey’s help.

It had been a request from his boyfriend for him to stay sober, and he had been happy to oblige.

He took his six month AA chip of his pockets, trying to forget the bottles on the other side of the dry wall, but the temptation was too strong. He used his gauntlet-watch to burst a hole through the wall, and took out the first bottle he found. He began laughing as he saw the one he was holding. A sixty years old bottle of scotch, the only one left from Howard’s collection. How fitting.

He headed down to the workshop, deaf to JARVIS pleas to put down the bottle. How he had missed the taste of alcohol. Not caring what he was working on, he asked JARVIS to pull up any schematics in progress, and he lost himself in his work to forget about reality for a short lapse of time.

He didn’t understand why the other Avengers could care so much about him being born in a female body. They were supposed to be a role models, to accept different people. Of course, it was always different when it came to Tony Stark. Maybe they had just not liked him from the beginning and were just using that as an excuses to get him off the team?

Tony was not going to give them that satisfaction.

“J?”

“What can I do for you, Sir?”

“Send Fury my resignation letter from the Avenger initiative.”

“Are you sure, Sir?”

“Not now, J. They know about me being... me.”

“If I may, you may want to reconsider, Sir. Maybe give them some time?”  
“Just do it.”

“Sir, have you tried talking to them?’’

“J. Do it.”

“Letter sent. But,-“

“Mute.”

Tony knew he shouldn’t have taken his anger out on his AI, but he was drunk and he could always apologize to him later and make it up to him by giving him a new update.

He ended up falling asleep on his couch after a ten hour working binge. He realized what had woken him up when he saw Dr. Banner knocking on his ‘shop doors. At least he had thought to deny them access to his workshop.

“J, tell him to go away.” He muttered still, not completely woken up. Since he was still in his suit from yesterday and he still had the alcohol bottle in his hand, he knew it wouldn’t be hard for Bruce to guess what had happened.

Bruce had been the only one to know about his AA meetings, and he had been there to keep him company in the lab on nights were it was harder not to give in to his craving. Guess he just kept disappointing people over and over.

“Tony, open the door right know or the other guy is bringing it down.” That was JARVIS way of letting him know he wasn’t happy with his creator, because even if he couldn’t overrule Tony’s command of denying the rest of the team access, Tony had never told him that he couldn’t link the audio from outside the ‘shop to inside of it.

Grumbling, Tony unmuted JARVIS and told him to open the door.

“Please don’t break my tower. It’s way to early to call Pepper and ask her to repair it.”

“Tony, the rest of the team is waiting upstairs. We want to talk to you.”

“It’s okay. I already sent my resignation letter to Fury. You don’t have to kick me off. You can go.”

“And let me tell you that Natasha is not happy about this. Come on, you’re coming with me. Please.” Bruce finished while gently grabbing his arm and leading him to the elevator.

Tony followed him, telling himself that if they really wanted to have that conversation, all right. He had already tried to give them the easy way out, but if they didn’t want to take it, fine.

He also got out his phone to see if his lover was back, without Bruce knowing, because none of the Avengers were aware of his relationship.

When he got in the living room, he saw that the whole team was really waiting from him, and the only place left after Bruce had sat down was on the couch beside Natasha. It didn’t matter, he didn’t have to sit down.

“Don’t even think about it, Stark, you’re sitting with me.” Natasha told him, and not really understanding what was happening ,why the team had wanted to see him, he sat next to her.

“Look, I know we all messed up, but we don’t want you to quit the team, man. Not because we need you, but because you’re our friend.” Clint blurted out really fast, but Tony could understand. He really hated talking ‘feelings and emotions’ too.

“Man of Iron, we are truly sorry for our reaction yesterday. We have wronged you and hurt you, but we intend to make it right. I won’t let my shield brother think I care so little about him.” Tony was surprised to see that Thor looked like he really meant what he was saying.

He had thought that the team wanted to see him either to make sure that he really intended to stay of the team or try to guilt him in thinking about the greater good to stay on the team. But now, Clint and Thor had apologized to him?

“Tony, we shouldn’t have let you leave yesterday. We shouldn’t have made you think that we cared about what your father said. We messed up, all of us and we hope that you’ll give us another chance.” It was really weird hearing Natasha apologizing.

“I shouldn’t have dragged you in that room, Tony. You can’t know how sorry I am. I didn’t understand why you talked about Howard like that, but you’re my friend and I should’ve listened to you and tried to understand rather than thinking that I knew better than you.” Tony must have been dreaming, because there was no way that Captain America was insinuating that Tony knew better than him. 

“I should’ve tried talking to you earlier, the day I found out you were transgender. I-I found a testosterone bottle in you lab one day, and I wasn’t sure, but when you showed me the arc reactor, I recognized the scars from your top surgery. If I didn’t have doubts, I wouldn’t have found the scars, but I should’ve talked to you then.I should’ve told you that I didn’t care, that you always were my favourite lab partner, my friend and that I didn’t change a thing.” Bruce was looking down at his hands the whole time, ashamed of having kept his discovery a secret.

“You knew? And you didn’t care?” It was the first time Tony had mustered enough courage to open his mouth since the beginning of the discussion.

“Of course I didn’t care, Tony. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I thought you would be angry at me for finding out something so personal about you.”

In the end, the team really cared about him? But could he trust them? Maybe they were just really good at lying? After all, two of them were spies and their jobs was to manipulate people.

“We’re not asking you to trust us, not after what we did, but would you just give us a chance?” Natasha had always known what to say to convince him. How could he say no to them? Maybe he was making a mistake, but he just didn’t have the strength to push the team away a second time.

~

Looking back to this day, month later, he knew he had made the right choice. The team was now living at the tower full time, and Tony had never been happier. He didn’t dare to say it out loud, but he considered them like the family he never had before. He had also stayed sober since his relapse.

Howard had gone back to his time about three weeks earlier, but it hadn’t bothered him. None of the Avengers had had any contact with him after the disaster of the first meeting. 

He was even considering telling the team about his boyfriend, knowing that he could trust them. Of course, Loki didn’t share his opinion, but maybe someday he was going to be ready. And Tony was happy to wait until that day. (He still wasn’t sure how they would react to him dating Thor’s brother, but he knew that they cared about him enough and that their relationship was strong enough to survive.)

**Author's Note:**

> Tony’s lover is Loki!
> 
> I always appreciate kudos and comments ;)


End file.
